Montanier Arrives in Athens

Philippe Montanier, the man who looks set to take over as manager, has arrived in Athens for talks with the club. Apparently he had dinner with Bajevic this evening but official talks are set to start tomorrow (Friday). I don’t think anything has been agreed upon yet but it seems like its almost a done deal and its just a matter of finalizing certain details. Still far too early to judge him at all as a manager for AEK, but I’m pretty excited. Its nice to see us this close to singing a serious manager so early in the season. The sooner he can get a plan in place and some players who fit his plan, the better. I wish him luck, although luck can only get you so far in Greece…

Photo of Montanier at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, courtesy of AEK365.com

In other news, our two representatives on the national team (three if you count Bakasetas), have arrived in Australia for the Greek national team friendly against Australia. Mantalos, Aravidis, and Bakasetas all recieved quite the reception from the Original21 club down in Sydney. Well done to all the guys down there, certainly made their voices heard! They were also there as the main group of players arrived. I wonder where all the PAO and Olympiakos supporters were? Hmm..

Aravidis with the Sydney Originals, photo courtesy of gazzetta.gr

Also a little note for those of you in the Sydney area. A friend of mine who is part of the Originals down there (he’s in the picture above in fact) is opening up a Souvlaki shop in Sydney tomorrow: https://www.facebook.com/Souvlaki-Boys-618554614963592/. I wish I could be there too. I wish I could be there, but unfortunately Sydney is a little too far from Ottawa for me at the moment. Be sure to check them out though if any of you are in the area, any support for a fellow AEKtzi is always great, and I’ve heard they’ll have some Greek products for purchase too along with the fresh Souvlaki.
Last but not least, a video was released today featuring the best 20 goals from AEK this season. Some beauties for sure, but I kind of forgot just how clinical a finisher Barbosa can be.